Commemorating the Killed

Born: 1900
Occupation: Laborer
Killed: August 6th, 1919
Cause of death: Stabbed

Flemming was born in Chicago on February 7, 1900. He lived at 4920 N. Lawrence Avenue with his father, John Fleming, originally from Louisiana, and his mother Agnes, an Irish immigrant. Flemming worked as a clerk. At the time of the riots, on August 5, Flemming and a group of other boys were walking at 47^th St. and Forrestville Avenue when ordered to halt and move away by a police officer.

As the group did so, they were pursued by a soldier named Edgar Mohan, who shouted at the boys to move faster. To have his order respected, perhaps, according to the Chicago Commission Report, Mohan made his commands known by, “twice stabbing and wounding one Thomas J. Fennessey in the right hip and scrotum.” Then Mohan stabbed Flemming in the back. Flemming died a day later, on August 6, at the age of nineteen. Mohan was indicted by the coroner’s jury which recommended he be charged with manslaughter. However, instead of being held for a grand jury, the office of the Illinois State Attorneyattempted to have him court martialed, since Mohan was in the military. Mohan was eventually exonerated of all crimes. After his death, Flemming was implicated in attacking Black neighborhoods with a gang who made a poolroom their clubhouse, perhaps indicating that Flemming was involved with or a member of one of the notorious “athletic clubs” that rampaged through Chicago during the riots.